According to the Washington Post and Virginia's own intrepid blogger, Waldo Jaquith, Robert "Taliban Bob" McDonnell (R) -- currently leading Creigh Deeds (D) by Now, with news that Abramoff associate Michael Scanlon (pictured at left) has been charged with conspiracy and has reportedly "has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors," Bob McDonnell could be in deep, deep trouble. As the Washington Post reports in today's paper:
Such cooperation from a pivotal figure in the Abramoff case is a major advance in the 18-month federal investigation into alleged bribery and corruption involving the lobbyist, members of Congress and executive branch agencies.
Meanwhile, Salon magazine's "War Room" reports that:
But Abramoff and Scanlon aren't likely to be the only ones who take a fall. The Justice Department filing charges that Scanlon did "knowingly conspire, confederate and agree with Lobbyist A [Abramoff]" to "corruptly offer and provide things of value, including money, meals, trips and entertainment to federal public officials in return for agreements to perform official acts benefitting Scanlon, Lobbyist A, and their clients."Note the plural with respect to "federal public officials." One member of the House of Representatives, widely believed to be Robert Ney, an Ohio Republican, is specifically singled out in the filing...[b]ut Abramoff's net spread very, very wide.
In other words, the entire Republican Party web of corruption, cronyism and sleaze (not to mention betrayal of covert CIA operatives by high-ranking Bush Administration officials, possibly Dick Cheney) could be about to unravel in a blizzard of indictments and prosecutions leading who-knows-where.
Right here in Virignia, as noted above, we've got Bob McDonnell, tied through a convicted pedophile to DeLay and Abramoff, and also stuck with "a mysterious $1M in income that he has never explained.
I'll tell you, there may not be any fire here, but there's an awful lot of smoke pouring out or Bob McDonnell's house these days! And now, a key figure in the entire web o' sleaze has decided to cut his own losses, save his skin, and spill the beans on pretty much anybody touched by Jack Abramoff's munificence. Could this include our own, beloved, "Taliban Bob?" Could we be facing a scenario here in Virginia where McDonnell actually is sworn in as Attorney General, only to be indicted not long afterwards? Is it not, perhaps, time for Bob McDonnell to simply withdraw from the Attorney General competition and turn the office over to Creigh Deeds, a man with integrity and no pedophiles or Jack Abramoffs in his closet? Just a thought.
On the other hand, Bob McDonnell is the same man who said he couldn't remember if he ever engaged in sodomy, so maybe he simply doesn't remember Robin Vanderwall (McDonnell?s former campaign manager and convicted pedophile), the Faith and Family Alliance (which Vanderwall says "was used almost exclusively to secretly fund political efforts?), Tim Phillips (who helped set up the money laundering organization), or Keith Polarek (on the board of the Faith and Family Alliance, and husband of McDonnell?s current campaign manager, Janet Polarek)?
Stay tuned, but this could be a long, hot winter here in Virginia. And I ain't talkin' about Global Warming, either!
P.S. I've been critical of DailyKos in the past, but today they are truly kicking butt - on both the Scanlon story as well as the "latest incarnation of the New McCarthyism, the ugly Duncan Hunter stunt - the so-called 'Murtha' resolution", as Armando puts it. Great job, guys!
[UPDATE: Waldo says, "It?s not clear that McDonnell is guilty of anything more than setting up a money laundering organization and having very poor taste in friends, but if there is anything more to his involvement, things must be rather uncomfortable at McDonnell campaign headquarters right now, given the metastasization of the Abramoff investigation."]